Michael Buffer: Age, height, weight, marriage, personal life, career

Michael Buffer (born November 2, 1944) is a ring announcer or “MC” for boxing and professional wrestling contests in the United States. He is well-known for his famous catchphrase, “Let’s get ready to rumble!” as well as for pioneering a distinct announcing method in which he rolls some letters and adds other inflexions to a fighter’s name. Bruce Buffer, a UFC announcer, is his half-brother.

Early life

During World War II, Buffer was born at St. Agnes Hospital in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to an enlisted sailor in the United States Navy and his wife. Buffer’s parents split when he was 11 months old, and he was reared in Roslyn, Pennsylvania, by foster parents, a school bus driver and a housewife. He entered the United States Army at the age of 20 during the Vietnam War and served until he was 23. He worked as a car salesperson before beginning a modelling career at the age of 32 and became a ring announcer at the age of 38.

Career

Boxing

Buffer started his career as a ring announcer in 1982. By 1983, he was calling all boxing events promoted by Bob Arum‘s Top Rank on ESPN, giving him a national identity at a period when ring announcers were exclusively hired locally.

By 1984, Buffer’s announcing had generated the tagline “Let’s get ready to rumble” which was hugely popular. He began the procedure of securing a federal trademark for the term in the 1980s and completed it in 1992. As a result of the licence for his trademark, Buffer has earned more than $400 million.

By the late 1980s, Buffer had been the exclusive ring announcer for all fights in Donald Trump’s casinos. Buffer, according to Trump, “He’s fantastic, he’s the preferred candidate, he possesses a rare talent… ‘We have to have him,’ I told my staff.”  Many boxing legends liked Buffer’s work as well. “When you introduce a fighter, it makes him want to fight.” Sugar Ray Leonard reportedly told Buffer.

Buffer struck a deal with DAZN in 2018 to be the sole ring announcer for all of its boxing broadcasts, including arrangements with Matchroom.

Wrestling

Buffer was the sole ring commentator for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) main events starring Hulk Hogan or other top WCW talent until the business dissolved in 2001. Time Warner-owned WCW through their pay-per-view subscription division HBO, which showed many matches from promoter Top Rank, of which Buffer is the principal ring announcer.

Buffer’s contract with WCW prohibited him from announcing for any wrestling-related organisations, forcing him to discontinue announcing for the UFC (his only UFC cards were UFC 6 and UFC 7). Buffer was able to announce in other wrestling promotions once WCW ceased to exist and Time Warner lost its relationship with professional wrestling.

While Buffer appeared on WCW Monday Nitro during the Monday Night Wars, WWF wrestler Triple H used the term “Let’s get ready to suck it!” to insult him as part of his D-Generation X gimmick.

Buffer returned to the pro-wrestling ring announcing duties at Madison Square Garden on Saturday Night’s Main Event XXXV for the first time in more than six years, in a boxing contest between pro boxer Evander Holyfield (who was filling in for Montel Vontavious Porter) and pro wrestler Matt Hardy.

Buffer appears in the Royal Rumble 2008 advertisement, as he begins to say “Let’s get ready to rumble!” before being super kicked by Shawn Michaels, forcing him to collapse. In addition to appearing in the event’s commercial, he served as a guest ring announcer during the Royal Rumble bout.

Other sports

Buffer has called the MLB World Series, the Stanley Cup Finals, the NBA Finals, the Volunteer 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, and NFL playoff games over his tenure. He appeared as a guest announcer for both the 1999 Indianapolis 500 and the 2017 United States Grand Prix.

Michael Buffer, like his brother Bruce, was an early UFC announcer, beginning with UFC 6 in 1995. He hosted the Versus boxing flashback show Legends of the Ring, which was produced by Top Rank, Inc., and he was the ring announcer for the majority of their top matches.

He announced the Affliction: Banned mixed martial arts show on July 19, 2008. Buffer began the heads-up action at the 2008 World Series of Poker final table between the two surviving players, Peter Eastgate and Ivan Demidov, on November 10, 2008, with a modified version of his trademark statement: “Let’s get ready to shuffle up and deal.”

Personal life

Buffer’s celebrity has led to the reunion of long-lost family relatives. Buffer was approached in 1989 by his birth father, who had seen him on television and introduced him to his half-brothers. Buffer hired one of his half-brothers, Bruce Buffer, as his agent/manager in the mid-1990s. This turned into a business relationship to boost the trademark’s licencing productivity.

Buffer married for the first time at the age of 21, but the marriage ended in divorce after seven years. From his first marriage, he has two boys. He was divorced for more than 25 years before remarrying in 1999. In 2003, he and his second wife split.

On September 13, 2007, he proposed to his current (third) wife, Christine, while appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Buffer is now based in Southern California. Bruce Buffer, his half-brother, is an announcer for Ultimate Fighting Championship, a major mixed martial arts promotion.

Buffer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2008.

Read more: Michael Buffer net worth: Early life, career, earnings and worth of boxing announcer in 2021